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PREHISTORIC CONDITION OF AMERICA. 



15 



THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION AS TO THE PREHIS- 
TORIC CONDITION OF AMERICA. 

BY REV. STEPHEN D. PEET. 

if 

Read before the State Archaeological Association of Ohio, at Newark, O., September, 1876. 

There are three ways of ascertaining the condition of society 
in the prehistoric period. The first is by tradition, the second 
by physical geography, and the third by archaeology, or the relics 
and "remains of lost empires." 

These three sources of knowledge are before us to furnish their 
description of the prehistoric times in America. 

There are, however, some stages of society which tradition 
does not reach, and for these we either have to find a substitute 
to the first source of evidence or depend altogether on the others. 

This is so in Europe and the older continents. There, there 
are certain ages of human existence of which no story remains ; 
nothing but the land which was inhabited and the relics or ruins 
which lie buried deep in the soil or covered with the sands of 
the desert. 

Civilizations have existed and passed away of which there is 
no tradition, nothing but the record of silent monuments. The 
site of Troy was occupied by a people preceding the Trojan, 
but even Homer knew not of this buried city, and no song cele- 
brates its hidden wonders. Egypt, too, had a glory which 
departed, and the only record left was that contained in the 
monuments which have survived the " wreck of empires and the 
tooth of time." Nineveh and Babylon and the Chaldean Empire 
have left great heaps of ruins and many rude monuments; 
but around many of these silent ruins not even a myth lingers 
to echo the story of their departed greatness. 

So in America, there are races which have passed away, leav- 
ing no record behind them, and the earliest period of human 
existence is here veiled in impenetrable obscurity. Not even the 
fragment of a tradition has floated down to us. We know that 
these races existed, for we have seen their foot-prints, but not 
an echo of their voice lingers ; no fragments of their story are 
discovered. Their skeletons lie mouldering in nameless graves, 
and all the witness which we have is the speechless, grinning 
skull or the silent earth-mounds in which they lie buried. Their 
works, with the rude architecture which they practiced; their 
relics, with the traces of their art and handicraft upon them; 
or occasionally an emblem or symbol inscribed on some vase 

3 gY TRANSFER. 

JUM 3 '910 



16 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

or vessel, or built into some great earth-mound; these are all 
that they have left behind, but no record attends them. Their 
hieroglyphics, if found, are obscure, and no key is left for their 
interpretation. 

There is, however, one method of approach to these obscure 
ages which may be substituted for this missing link of knowl- 
edge ; a method which has been practiced in reference to the 
early cultus of the European nations. It is that of analogy, 
the analogy of history. To illustrate : The Etruscans of Europe 
have furnished difficult problems. They were once almost an 
unknown people. Their ethnic connection has been disputed. 
It is still a question whether they were Pelasgian or Tyrhenian, 
Aryan or Turanian; whether their cultus came from the North 
and was a development of the savage races of the mountains, 
or from the South, transported from Asia or the East. History 
does not inform us. Their rude Cyclopean architecture, the 
traces of art, which reached so high a stage of development 
among them, and the rude inscriptions occasionally discovered, 
are still objects of wonder. 

But the Etruscans are not now an unknown people. They 
have been studied until a fair degree of knowledge of them has 
been attained. How have we learned about the Etruscans ? By 
the analogy of history. Men have reasoned from the known to 
the unknown. Their forms of architecture, their specimens of 
art, and the fragments of inscriptions, many and varied images, 
have been examined, and through known Aryan symbols upon 
them, or by the traces of Pelasgian divinities, or by the anal- 
ogy of later languages, and with the aid of later history, they 
have come to be understood, and now the Etruscans are regarded 
as almost as well known as an historic people. 

But there are many prehistoric races in America which are 
like the Etruscans. There may not be the same halo about them 
as there has been about that ancient people, nor is there any 
classic glory connected with their memories, yet there is the 
same separation of the later and the earlier races, the same dark 
obscurity hangs over their early state, the same wonder is awak- 
ened by their rude architecture and mysterious inscriptions, and 
the same admiration is felt for their beautiful specimens of 
handicraft. 

The evidence of a higher culture among them is also found, 
and the traces of an elaborate and complicated religion, as 'well 
as the occasional inscriptions, which indicate possibly a famil- 
iarity with letters even, all serve to make these prehistoric people 
as worthy of investigation as ever were the Etruscans of Europe. 
It has, indeed, been maintained that there are striking resem- 
blances between some of these American races, especially those 



PREHISTORIC CONDITION OF AMERICA. 



17 



iii Peru, to the Etruscans, and the affinities and the peculiarities 
of the Turanian race, to which both are supposed to have be- 
longed, have been studied on this account with more thoughtful 
consideration. 

But if we are to ascertain anything about these earlier people 
it will also be by the analogy of history. We are reminded 
that the history of nearly every land has been divided, as was 
that of Greece, into three great periods, the Mythical, the Heroic 
and the Historic. These almost always follow one another. In 
Egypt, in China, in Japan, as well as in Greece, a fabulous his- 
tory preceded the true, so that the antiquity of these people 
extended back in immense cycles. The reign of the gods pre- 
ceded that of men ; this was followed by an age when divine and 
human beings were mingled, and this again was followed by the 
distinctively human; but each age shaded into one another so 
that it is almost impossible to draw the line between them. 

Such is the realm which tradition alone opens before us. 
There is something shadowy and uncertain about it, and we 
maintain that the traditions of these Oriental countries as to 
the extreme antiquity of the nations, or as to the early state of 
society, or the national grandeur in the earliest times, will 
prove false. It was the ambition of these nations to prove a 
very ancient existence, and later inventions and improvements 
were by them reflected back upon the earlier times. There may 
also be a tendency in our own country to give too much cre- 
dence to tradition, or to rely too much upon imagination in 
making up our mind as to the condition of the races in prehis- 
toric times, and especially as to the extreme antiquity of man 
upon the continent. In reference to the historic races of the 
continent it is an unreliable evidence. The changes of the 
population are too rapid, the memory of the savage races too 
uncertain, and the means of communicating or transmitting tra- 
dition too imperfect. 

It should be said, too, that there are localities on the American 
continent where there are no traditions of the prehistoric people. 
The record which may be found in the fragmentary accounts 
of the last hundred years is all that can be found, and even then 
this record comes from the broken and decimated tribes of 
nations, which have impinged upon one another, and who were 
not occupying their native seats. The description of native 
tribes before they were removed from their original habitation 
can be gathered only from a few border tales, or military reports, 
or the story > of the frontier hunter, and the traditions of the 
locality have never been gathered. Indeed, there are sections 
in North America which are so strictly prehistoric that no his- 
tory comes in contact, either by tradition or otherwise, with the 



18 



THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



prehistoric times. Of the six or seven grand divisions of the 
prehistoric population not the half have ever been visited or 
explored, so that the traditionary history could be given with 
any reliability. The portions of the continent bordering on the 
Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico have indeed left to us 
something of an aboriginal history, and the descriptions given 
of these native tribes in their original abodes may furnish pos- 
sible analogies for the more remote prehistoric races, but the 
regions which were the homes of that mysterious people, the 
so-called Mound Builders, that, also, occupied by the ancient 
Pueblos and Cliff Dwellers, and we might say all of the interior 
of the continent, have been left without a history, even of the 
later tribes. One great work of the archgeologist is to gather 
the fragments of this history from such sources as can now be 
reached, and so at least draw a picture of the country as it 
existed during the presence of the aborigines. But as to the 
more ancient period, neither history nor tradition furnish us with 
any satisfactory knowledge, and our only source is that referred 
to, namely, that of analogy. 

The manner in which the analogy of history can throw light 
on the prehistoric ages should then engage our attention. 

There is one way at least we may say that history illustrates 
the prehistoric, and that is by explaining the use of the struct- 
ures and relics which have survived to modern times. By his- 
tory, however, we mean the history of the aborigines. It is 
worthy of remark that there was a period in the history of our 
land when the proper use of these aboriginal structures and 
relics could be much better understood than at the present time. 
In the early era of the Discoveries these works in many localities 
were occupied, and though they were not in all cases erected by 
the people who dwelt in them ; yet their later use serves well to 
illustrate their earlier, and therefore the history of these times 
is very valuable. The mode of life of the successive races was 
so similar, that it was not difficult for the later races to build on 
almost the same model which prevailed in the preceding ages. 
The organization of society and government was also so similar 
that they demanded similar structures, and many of the same 
implements and weapons were used by the successive races. 

The council-houses, temples, burying-places, as w r ell as private 
houses might differ in the material, and to a degree in the shape, 
but as the organization of society of nearly all the earlier races 
continued on the same model, it is not improbable that we may 
learn the design of the more ancient structure from the knowm 
use of the more modern. 

For instance, the description given by the early explorers, 
such as Ferdinand de Soto and his attendants, by Cabeca de Yaca 



PREHISTORIC CONDITION OF AMERICA. 



19 



and Garcilasso de la Vega, will apply only to the native tribes 
which then occupied the regions bordering on the Gulf of Mexico 
and the lower Mississippi; but it has been maintained by later 
travelers and investigators, such as Adair, Bartram and others, 
that these races were occupying the same works which a preced- 
ing race had built. Such was the tradition of the natives them- 
selves, and such also was the impression which the early explorers 
gained. At times "these ancient tumuli," as Col. C. C. Jones 
maintains, " were subjected by the later tribes to secondary uses, 
so that in not a few instances the summits and flanks of large 
temple-mounds, originally designed for religious objects, such as 
the worship of the sun, were by the Creeks and Cherokees con- 
verted into stockade forts, used as elevations for council lodges 
and the residences of their chiefs, or devoted to the purposes of 
sepulture." (See Antiquities of Southern Indians, by C. C. 
Jones, p. 126.) Yet at other times the erection of a rotunda on 
a mound of " much ancienter date than the building itself," or 
the location of a " chunky-yard " in the midst of an earthwork 
whose builders were unknown to the natives, might illustrate 
the original use of these structures as nothing else could. There 
is, to he sure, a difficulty in thus reasoning, for the natives 
themselves " are often as ignorant as we are, by what people or 
for what purpose these artificial hills were raised" (Bartram's 
Travels, pp. 355-356), and the various stories concerning them 
at the best " amount to no more than mere conjecture, and leave 
us entirely in the dark;" yet it is certainly fortunate for us that 
the races which occupied these works and were the survivors of 
the successive populations which preceded them, have been so 
well described by the various historians. Civilization does not 
and cannot give us any clue to the use of these prehistoric struct- 
ures. It is only by the study of the savage races that we under- 
stand the rude stages of society which existed when they were 
erected, and thus by a system of gradual approach, we come to 
appreciate and realize something of the condition of the races 
which then lived. Had we no other criterion to judge the strange 
and mysterious works which are found on this continent than 
that furnished by our modern houses and public buildings, we 
could not understand them, but we have the means furnished by 
history. 

Even the barbaric architecture of other lands is a better aid 
to the understanding than the civilized. At times we find an 
advantage in going back to the ancient history of the world, 
and in the descriptions of the early patriarchal times, or in that 
given by Homer of the tribal state, or by Caesar and Tacitus, 
and other historians of the early nomadic tribes of Europe, we 
gain some conception of the state of society in this very early 



20 



THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



period of American history. But nothing assists us so much as 
a familiarity with the savage and semi-savage life of the tribes 
existing in the very localities which we are studying. It is 
remarkable that the structures of the races which succeeded one 
another on American soil resembled one another so closely. 
This is so in the ancient Asiatic history. It is so in America. 

As we read of the successive occupations we may perhaps 
understand the earlier conditions. The customs of one race 
fitted into one framework will give us the picture for the frame 
left by another people. We may take the historic picture out 
from the structure in which we find it and place it in the works 
of the prehistoric people, and observe that it is to a degree descrip- 
tive, and a truthful likeness of both ages. These likenesses of 
the prehistoric ages we often meet with in early American his- 
tory. We have only to read some of the descriptions given by 
the voyagers or explorers to understand the use of many of 
these works which seemed so mysterious. Even those mounds and 
massive pyramids and earthworks which seemed so strange in their 
design may become plain to our minds, and the life thus put 
into them may speak to us of the days that have passed. Thus 
it may be, that the different classes of works, the military and 
religious, the agricultural and village, and even those designed 
for games, for funerals or other ceremonies, will yet be under- 
stood by the study of the customs of the people who survived 
the builders of these structures. We may, indeed, need to study 
the history of these tribes much more closely than we have done, 
yet it is not impossible that when we come to understand the 
religions of these Indians, we shall also understand the religious 
structures of their predecessors; when we know their military 
habits and customs we shall realize something of the military 
system which ruled in the erection of the military and defense 
works; when we know more of the agricultural and domestic 
life, we shall be able to explain the uses of many of the relics 
and the works; and when we have become acquainted with the 
social status and the village life of the tribes which history 
makes known, we shall know more of the many village structures 
and communistic houses which are still in existence, though so 
often in ruins and without inhabitants. 

Our great work, then, is to study the still surviving races that 
we may better understand those which have passed away. 

II. We turn, then, to the second source of information, and 
examine the testimony of physical geography. 

There are three maps of the country which the archaeologist 
should have before him. One is the historic, the other the pre- 
historic, and the third the pre-prehistoric or physical map. 



PREHISTORIC CONDITION OF AMERICA. 



2 1 



The historic represents Hie tribes of aborigines, as they were 
located at the times of the discovery up to the Revolution. 
The prehistoric represents the location of the earthworks and 
other remains as they are now found, but which probably were 
left by the races which existed before the discovery. The physi- 
cal represents the natural face of the country as it existed before 
man inhabited it. 

Now of these maps the first and the third are known, and they 
are to be studied to give us information about the second. The 
ethnological map and the geographical combined may throw 
some light upon the archaeological. 

In the maps constructed by the author, the historical and the 
geographical have been shaded in similar colors, to show the cor- 
respondence between the physical geography and the condition 
of the later races. The archaeological was shaded with the same 
colors, the character of the works being designated by the 
colors. For instance, in the ethnological or historical map, the 
great Algonquin race, a nomadic people, are represented by the 
gueen, and this corresponds with the high forest land of the 
physical atlas. The yellow represents the Mobilian nation, an 
agricultural race which dwelt in the region of the Gulf States, 
and this corresponds with the yellow or green of the physical 
atlas, indicating the rich alluvial soil of those states. The blue 
represents the great Dacotah race, and the varied colors repre- 
sent the Mandans, Flatheads, and other tribes west of the Rocky 
Mountains, while those on the Pacific coast are also shaded into 
one another. 

The archaeological map has been shaded according to the char- 
acter of the works ; the green representing a preponderance of 
military or defensive structures, and the yellow representing the 
structures of agricultural people, consisting of isolated mounds 
and pyramids, and a light shade, which represents the distribution 
of that complicated system of earthworks and mounds, the pre- 
ponderating type of which are the sacred and emblematic. The 
brick color represents the Pueblos of the West, and the red rep- 
resents the stone ruins of Mexico and Central America. 

Now, the correspondence of these three maps is the point for 
us to consider. Do the works of the prehistoric times show the 
effects of the soil and climate in their design and general struc- 
ture, and is there any such correspondence to the ethnical traits 
of the historic tribes? Is the key to the three series of maps 
found in the physical geography? 

As we read of the character of the tribes situated in the dif- 
ferent localities, do we find a correspondence between their status 
and social condition and theii physical surrounding? This may 
not be as apparent on this continent as on others. The country 



'22 



THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



is too continuous for the geographical features to impress them- 
selves upon the races. The mountain ranges run in the wrong 
directions to mark the zones of climate by any physical barrier. 
If there is any effect upon the people, the barriers between the 
nations are not sufficiently distinct to make this perpetual. The 
nations have not been kept shut in to the effects of these local 
causes so as to make separate races. The geographical divisions 
have not made ethnical differences. In Europe, Asia, and Africa 
the geographical barriers are so marked that they have made racial 
distinctions which can never be obliterated. There the effects of 
climate, soil, food, and mode of life are so apparent that now 
the most natural, and perhaps the most scientific, division of the 
races is that of Asiatic, European, and African. Whatever we 
may say about the historic origin of these races, yet as far as 
the physical characteristics of the people of the eastern hemi- 
sphere are concerned, this is the most distinctive and the most 
natural. But if we adopt the more common classification given 
by Pritchard and Blumenbach, into Mongolian, Malay, Cau- 
casian, African, and American, we find the correspondence in 
the colors of these respective races to the physical barriers of 
the countries which they inhabit. We may not explain it, yet 
such is the fact. The Mongolians, or the yellow races were the 
inhabitants of the high table lands of Mongolia and Independ- 
ent Tartary. The brown races were, on the other hand, the in- 
habitants of the low plains and islands of the Torrid zone. The 
white or Caucasian race were originally mountaineers, of Cau- 
casus, but afterward settled in the northern highlands of Asia 
the forests of Europe, while the negroes, or blacks, were always 
the inhabitants of the great continent of Africa, where both the 
effect of climate and soil conspired to produce and perpetuate 
the physical qualities foi which they are distinguished. As to 
the red or American race, the very fact that this distinction has 
been recognized, and that the race extends across the two conti- 
nents, proves in itself that on the western hemisphere there is an 
exception to the general rule. The racial characteristics here 
extend through all the geographical barriers, across the various 
belts of latitude, and we find an homogeneous character in the in- 
habitants of the entire hemisphere. 

According to that classification which designates the American 
as the red or copper race, the physical geography of the country has 
produced no ethnical lines. In other respects also, it is apparent 
that the physical geography has not made any marked ethnical dif- 
ferences. It was the opinion of Dr. S. G. Morton, after a long 
study of the skulls of the American races, that there was no racial 
distinction between the inhabitants of this hemisphere. This 
opinion may not be entirely tenable, and even was held with some 



PREHISTORIC CONDITION OF AMERICA. 



23 



uncertainty by that distinguished ethnologist; for the differences 
between Peruvians and Mexicans, and between the Aztecs and ' 
red Indians, are too manifest; but the idea that the racial 
peculiarities of skull or skeleton were caused by the geographical 
surroundings has never to our knowledge been maintained. With 
the single exception of the Esquimaux, whose pyramidal head , 
and squat form have been assigned to their fish diet and peculiar 
hyperborean life ; no race on this continent has been assigned to / 
its locality and there recognized as a creation of its own eiivironV 
ment, a human race belonging to an earth-mould. 

There is, however, one respect in which we may recognize the 
effects of the physical surroundings, and that is in the state of soci- 
ety. There is, indeed, a correspondence in this respect between the 
population and the physical geography. This was so in the con- 
dition of the later aboriginal races, and we may suppose it was 
also so with the earlier prehistoric races. There is even now with 
the surviving races more or less of a correlation between their 
mode of life and the country which they inhabit, and the history 
of the tribes which have been removed from their original seats 
indicates the same thing. The works and remains, also, of the 
preceding populations indicate this same correspondence. 

For instance, in the mountain region of the Cumberland, in 
the hill country of the upper Ohio, in Western Virginia, Penn- 
sylvania, and New York, we find a class of works which have 
been generally classified by the name of military or defensive. 
A few works of the same kind have been found throughout 
New England, along the banks of Lake Erie, in various parts 
of Michigan, and, in fact, wherever there are forests covering 
the mountains or lining the rivers and the lakes. It would seem, 
then, that this kind of structure was peculiar to the hills and the 
forests of the East. The mode of life in these regions was mil- 
itary. It was a necessity of their very situation. Here was the 
effect of nature upon the state of society which was inevitable. 
These works were military and defensive, as from the nature of 
their surroundings they must be. The forests gave too much 
opportunity for treachery to avoid it. Human nature, when 
dwelling in such circumstances, would develop in this way. It 
made no difference w T hat tribe dwelt there, there was a necessity 
for military habits. We can picture to ourselves exactly the 
condition of society. Whether the same tribes inhabited these 
regions, or whether they were different, their mode of life was 
dictated by circumstances. There were no means by which the 
people should overrule the force of nature and gain control of 
her elements. It was one of the peculiarities of prehistoric 
society that it was conformed altogether to nature. Civilization 
alone overrides the difficulties and makes the forces of nature 



24 



TtiE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



obedient to her wants; but the prehistoric races succumbed to 
circumstances, and were conformed in their condition to their 
environment. 

We call these military structures comparatively modern, but 
we do not know how long they continued. If there were those 
who led a different life, they were probably located in the valleys 
or on the borders of the streams, just where we find a few agri- 
cultural works. But the vast majority of works, whether very 
ancient or more modern, are of the same class — military and 
defensive. Over three hundred of these military structures are 
found in the single State of New York; and scattered over the 
mountains of "Virginia, and Eastern Tennessee and Kentucky, 
and everywhere where the hunting life and the warlike and 
predatory state would be most likely to prevail, there these mili- 
tary and defensive structures are found. 

Just as the military or warlike tribes of the historical Indians 
have been identified with the forests and the mountains, so these 
military structures of the prehistoric races are found in the same 
localities. 

The Iroquois, the Wyanclots, and the Eries were a warlike 
people. The Cherokees were also warriors, and may be regarded 
as the mountain tribes of the East, while the Del a wares and 
some of the tribes of the Algonquins, inhabiting ]S T ew England 
and the northeastern States, led a mingled life, partly agricult- 
ural and partly hunting. Thus we have in these localities at 
least, a correspondence between the state of the population and 
the physical surroundings, and we need, therefore, to shade the 
three maps alike. It is so elsewhere, also. 

It has been intimated already that there were several grand 
divisions of the prehistoric population on this continent, but we 
shall find that this division is according to the social status rather 
than any ethnic traits. 

The ancient populations of the Atlantic coast have left one 
class of structures behind them, the Mound Builders of the Mis- 
sissippi Valley another, the Pueblos of Arizona and New Mexico 
another, the uncivilized races of the Pacific coast another, and 
the civilized races of Mexico still another. Whether these works 
were modified, both in their material and in their shape and 
character, by the physical features of the separate regions or not, 
the differences in the works are manifest. Each class of ancient 
works suggests a mode of life different from the other, and the 
great work of the arch geologist is to trace the correlation between 
this mode of life and the geography of the country. To one 
who is familiar with the laws which govern human population, 
and who has observed the -effect of the physical upon human 
nature, this is not difficult. But as an evidence of the prehis- 



PREHISTORIC CONDITION OF AMERICA. 



25 



torie status the subject needs to be studied more attentively. In 
the grand divisions of ' the globe, the ethnic divisions follow these 
physical barriers, but the minor divisions are more difficult to 
trace, but these may be seen in the various portions of this con- 
tinent very distinctly. 

We in America need only to look over the map and learn the x 
general physical characteristics of each section if we would 
know what the state of society was in the prehistoric ages. If 
the hunter life prevailed in the forests, the nomadic life on the 
prairies, the agricultural on the rich plains and in the alluvial 
bottom lands of the Gulf States, if a high state of civilization 
existed among the rich plains and valleys of ilexico, and the 
Pueblos or rude village life prevailed in the interior of Arizona 
and New Mexico, it is probable that these were the conditions of 
society in the prehistoric period. ISTot that society develops 
altogether according to its environment, for there are nations 
that have conquered even the forces of nature ; but among the 
primitive people we must acknowledge the supremacy of the 
physical causes in giving shape to their state and condition. 

Whether the tribes naturally were modified and grew into their 
earth-mould, or according to their own elective affinities they 
made choice of localities to suit their ethnic traits, there is cer- 
tainly a correspondence. Civilized races may have come into this 
continent and found lodgment in the rich valleys of Central 
America; the wild tribes from Mongolia and the high plains of 
Eastern Asia may have wandered until they found the hunting- 
grounds to suit them; the nomads also may have sought the 
open prairie on the same principle that the northern Hyperborean 
of the arctic region sought the latitude which he was used to as 
a habitation; but the geography of our country is dotted with 
these works of the prehistoric races, which have a wonderful 
correspondence with their surroundings. 

There are, to be sure, according to this theory, some things 
difficult to account for. In the first place, the later races discov- 
ered in those sections were very different from the earlier. There 
are certainly ethnic traits witnessed in these regions crowding 
out and overwhelming those which were naturally developed. 
Different nations having radically different peculiarities have 
been run into the same environment and may have produced 
very different states of society. 

The warlike hunter Algonquin came upon the peaceful Mound 
Builder and displaced him. The village life of the Ohio valley 
disappeared before the incursions of those northern barbarians, 
just as the civilization of Eome went out under the incursions 
of the hordes of Goths and Vandals. The Pueblos of Arizona and 
Utah and Colorado are also occupied by a new race, and the wild 



26 



THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



Comanche, the Ute and Apache roam amid the ruins of a higher 
civilization than they ever knew. Yet, as a general thing, we 
shall find that this correspondence proves true. Especially if we 
look away from the later races to the earlier, do we see the effect 
of natural surroundings in the conditions of the people. The 
prehistoric and ancient, furnish a picture which corresponds with 
the scenery far more than the aboriginal or historic. With them 
the adaptation seemed to be complete. We have only to people 
the land with these races, and then draw our inferences from 
the character of the country as to the mode of life which pre- 
vailed, to have a complete picture of the prehistoric period. 

III. The third source of information is the Archaeological. 

We have spoken of the different localities, some of them his- 
toric and some strictly prehistoric with their relics and associa- 
tions. 

We have also referred to the correspondence between the 
physical surroundings and the prehistoric condition of these 
aborigines. But throughout the reasoning, it lias been apparent 
that our main reliance must be after all the Archaeological Relics 
or Remains. 

These, we are then to consider as our main source of infor- 
mation. 

But they are silent. They give no testimony as to the life, 
which once existed ; no history of the races which have departed. 
They are lonely and deserted, not even a lingering member of 
the numerous people which once crowded these mysterious struc- 
tures is left to tell the tale of the past. 

We are now obliged to study man through his works, even as 
we study the great Creator through His grander works. The 
evidence of design is that which we rely upon in both cases. 
Like the watch on the heath we study the mechanism and learn 
its purpose, and then judge something of the maker. It may be 
a blind method, but the best we have in the circumstances. 

The state of prehistoric society may possibly be determined by 
the examination of cabinets. There are relics there, which are 
useful. They show to us the arts of the prehistoric people. They 
point out to us the culture which they had reached. Classified 
according to our standard they reveal the materials which were 
at their disposal. They show the mineralogy of the country and 
that the early people were familiar with it. They show that each 
tribe employed the material of his own locality for their weap- 
ons and implements. 

They reveal some small degree of commerce, and the inter- 
change of metals and other materials. 

They exhibit the habits of the people, whether agricultural or 
nomadic or hunting or fishing. They reveal the warlike appli- 



PREHISTORIC CONDITION OF AMERICA. 



27 



ances, also the peaceful arts, and at the same time they make 
known the advancement of the races. 

The very "ages" associated with these relics are suggestive, and 
the recognition of the bronze, or the copper or the rude stone or 
polished stone implements will bring a picture of society before 
the mind. 

These relics, as they have been associated with the states of 
society which history describes, are indeed evidences. They pre- 
sent a picture to the imagination and they bring before us the 
scenes which have been depicted elsewhere. One stage of society 
after another runs before us like a panorama. 

If we are not familiar with American aboriginal history, if we 
have read no border tales, and none of Cooper's novels, if we 
never saw an Indian, and never read about the early tribes in Eng- 
land, or the Germanic tribes in Europe, if we have only read our 
Bibles, and had some insight into the primitive patrarchial times 
and the days when Cain dressed himself in skins and went out 
and built a city, yet these specimens are instructive. 

The more we read and know of the rude tribes, and follow the 
various travellers all over the vast unknown regions of every con- 
tinent, the more we make ourselves familiar with the different 
stages of society, whether in history or in contemporaneous 
geography, and especially as we study into the philosophy of 
history, and the rise of civilization, the more valuable shall we 
see these relics to be. 

The collection of relics may not seem to be important, or a sin- 
gle specimen appear to be of any particular value, but the data 
of the science are thus obtained and a single relic may give a 
clue which shall lead to wonderful discoveries or reveal a whole 
gallery of prehistoric pictures. 

The author was at one time examining one of the Fire-beds on 
the Ohio river. An old settler and practical observer was with 
him. We were discussing the probable origin of these shell-heaps 
and accumulated fragments. Everything favored the idea that they 
were natural deposits. The situation on the bank of the river, 
the conformation of the deposit to the surface of the bottom 
land, the situation at the bend of the river, the traces of frequent 
floods over the very spot, and the character of the debris all led 
to the conclusion that it was only a deposit from the river. 

We were conversing; the old settler and practical collector 
giving arguments in favor of the human origin, the author point- 
ing out the natural causes, until the discussion had almost ended 
with the exhaustion of patience, when suddenly the writer looked 
into his own hands, where he was holding what he had taken out 
of the banks, and exclaimed ; "I give it all up ; you are 
right ; there is the evidence ! " and be held up before the other 



28 



THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



the fragmentary broken relics of a rude stone hatchet. He had 
recognized among the dirt, the groove of the handle, and the 
truth flashed on his mind at once that it was human in its origin. 

His scepticism went down before a single specimen. It was 
a rude fragmentary relic, but it revealed the whole thing to him. 

So there are hints given in a silent way by these relics, which 
shall be like the falling of the apple on the head of a Newton, or 
the burning of a piece of sulphur to Goodyear, or the last burn- 
ing of the household furniture to Pallisey, the potter. 

The observation which has been trained in the school of experi- 
ence, sometimes becomes an intuition, and at last siezes the clue 
and goes on to great discoveries. 

The relics which give their testimony may be those of the war- 
like or of the agricultural or of the village inhabitants ; condition 
may be of wood or stone or copper; they may be weapons or 
utensils, or implements, or articles of art or apparel, they may be 
ornaments, or the mere tokens of the games of pleasure, they may 
contain the more serious and significant religious emblems and 
embrace idols and images, or the totems and tribal emblems ; or 
possibly inscriptions and symbols, which give traces of the customs, 
or astronomical views, and chronology of the worshippers. But 
none of these are without importance and every one must be 
studied long and close, for the key to the door of these prehistoric 
mysteries is among them, and no one knows which will unlock the 
strange secret to our vision. A single bullet found in a mound 
in Kentucky, determined the age of a class of earthworks which 
had been studied with great interest, while a sword hilt has been 
suggestive of the early explorers' encampments. 

The antiquity of the races, the different orders of society, the 
stages of human development, the ethnic affinities, and the whole 
subject of the prehistoric condition must be learned from 
these rude relics as the source of information, and as confirma- 
tory of other evidences. 

2. There is a second class of archaeological evidences on 
which we rely. 

The remains as well as the relics give us testimony upon the 
prehistoric condition. 

The remains and earthworks of this country are divided into 
several classes, according to their uses or their character. No 
general classification has ever been given, but thus far they are 
only enumerated and then described. If, however, we consider 
the materials as a basis, we may be able to give some order in 
the classification. 

It is proper to observe that there are traces of a numerous 
prehistoric population scattered over nearly every part of the 
broad continent. No one who has not made a point of observing, 

I 



PREHISTORIC CONDITION OF AMERICA. 



29 



would understand how numerous these vestiges are, or understand 
their design or purpose; yet they are here to present their evi- 
dence, to invite our study, and we ourselves are at fault if by 
comparing and analyzing and attending to their testimony we do 
not understand the tale. 

Let any one go forth into the fields and the meadows, into the 
hills and valleys, and search for these records of the past, and he 
cannot fail to trace out an alphabet more striking than the hiero- 
glyphics of Egypt, or the inscription upon the buried palaces of 
the East. These works are replete with a varied story, every 
where the decaying skeletons and the silent skulls remind us 
mournfully of the death that has swept over the land ; but the 
remains of fires, the debris of camps, as well as the running 
stream and sparkling spring from which they drank, all remind 
us how recently the living have passed away. 

As we go through the silent earthworks, and see all the 
preparations they made, the walls and ditches for defense, the 
enclosures they erected for worship, and the monuments or 
mounds they erected for tombs, we are astonished at the great 
variety, and the wonderful significance. 

If there are modes of life which we do not understand, and 
structures which are still mysterious in their design, yet they are 
very expressive of the strange unknown life, of the mysterious 
religion, the wild aboriginal state. It may not compare with our 
later civilized condition and modern ideas, for they are only 
expressive of another condition than that to which we are accus- 
tomed. 

But the picture of the prehistoric condition cannot be excelled. 

Let any one visit one of the renowned defenses situated so 
beautifully on the lofty hill top, and commanding the distant 
view of stream and valley, of hill and forest, and then look about 
him and behold the wonderful adaptation for defense and pro- 
tection, and he will appreciate what were the dangers from the 
secret foe, and how the war-whoop must have startled the peace- 
ful inmates. 

Let him visit again the quiet village inclosure, and see the 
surrounding wall, and trace the place of palisades, or tread the 
path to the unfailing stream, and walk over the happy hunting 
ground and the delightful valleys, and he has a picture of peace 
which nothing else can give. 

Let him then enter the corn fields or the garden beds, or sur- 
mount the elevated platform, or enter the ancient courts and 
courtyards of the agricultural people, and he again has a view of 
another state of life, which he did not know. Again, let himj 
enter one of the sacred enclosures and look about him and see 
the altars and the temple platforms, and all the complicated 



30 



THE AMERICAN J ^TIQUARIAN. 



structures, wherever the social fire were lit s ) the victims of 
sacrifice were offered, and even ji he knows f ot the worship 
that then prevailed, it is not difficult to imagine something of 
the religious customs of the people. 

The grand pageant of the assembled multitudes passes before 
hirm as/ they.* gather at their annual feasts, or at their religious 
ceremonies, or their great burials, or for their war expeditions. 
In imagination he sees in one place the merry-making and the 
dance, he hears the music and the laughter; but at another he 
looks upon the smoke and the slaughter and the many mysterious 
rites. Here he beholds the "very great burning," the solemn 
mourning, the sacred burial; there he sees the plumed warriors, 
armed with their stone axes and flint spears and maces, either in 
fleets of canoes, navigating the waters, or in long lines traversing 
the forests. Everywhere the scene is suggestive of a life which 
has passed away. Whether one stands on the lofty pyramids of 
Mexico, which once reeded with the gore of human victims 
taken in battle and slaughtered as sacrifice, or among the exten- 
sive dwellings of the Pueblos, where such multitudes gathered 
for defense or for residence, or among the sacred enclosures of 
the Mound Builders, where a still stranger people once lived and 
toiled and worshipped — yet each structure is suggestive of a life 
which once prevailed, but which has passed away, and of the pre- 
historic condition of this continent. 



One of the greatest archaeological puzzles in our country is 
the large flaked flints, usually called leaf-shaped implements. 
They are from 4 to 9 inches in length, 3 to 5 wide, and about 
half an inch thick, round at the base, and very obtusely pointed 
at the opposite extremity, the apex being slightly to one side. 
They show no signs of use whatever, and are found in masses 
from a few to many hundreds. Mr. Thomas Rhodes, of Akron, 
Ohio, has lately discovered a cache of these objects about three 
miles west of that town, under an old tamarack stump, about 
two feet below the surface, in peat or muck. There were 197 
in the nest. The largest is 8-J inches long by 3-| wide ; the 
smallest is about 2-| inches long. 

Excavations. — The ancient Sipuntum, mentioned by Strabo 
and Livy, which was SAvallowed by an earthquake, has, as already 
announced, been discovered near Mont Gargano, in Italy. A 
magnificent temple of Diana, ornamented by a portico nearly 
one hundred feet broad, and an immense necropolis, have been 
unearthed. The excavations are being made under the direction 
of the Italian government. 



103 



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